


Rest is Unwritten

by panther



Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-31
Updated: 2011-10-31
Packaged: 2017-10-25 02:47:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/270883
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/panther/pseuds/panther
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Erik doesn't leave after the incident on the beach. Instead they all retreat back to Charles's home where Charles wallows in his own misery until Erik gathers the courage up to talk to him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rest is Unwritten

Charles never sleeps well these days. Sleep only brings bad memories and a numb stiffness that takes hours to fade to a level he can almost ignore. He has come to hate being asleep and yet hates being awake at the same time. Being awake means he has to confront what he has been reduced to and look into the pitying faces of his carers. Hank comes, Alex too, and they always look like they don’t quite know what to say to him anymore. He dare not read their minds, terrified of what he will find out and what it will do to him. Instead he asks them to leave him be unless it is to show him the plans for the school, one of the only things that make him feel useful anymore.

He is aware that Erik, Raven and the others are in the house but they don’t come near him. At night he is aware of Raven’s presence outside his room, hears her soft tears, but she never enters and he is grateful for it. He doesn’t ’know how he would react. It feels like they are only there because of his accident, because of guilt, and he doesn’t want their pity. It weighs on his shoulders and makes his aches a little more noticeable when he thinks about it. Charles hasn’t let Moira come to him yet, even if she keeps asking. He is afraid he will snap at her when he doesn’t really mean it but it still so _raw_

It takes Erik over a week to appear at his door. He comes early in the evening after Banshee has brought him his dinner and doesn’t ask whether he can come in, just waltzes in without warning and closes the door behind him before moving to the bed.

“May I?” he asks and Charles didn’t realise just how much he missed that voice until he hears it again. He is so glad in that moment that he is the one that can read minds and that it isn’t Erik. So taken aback by the fact that Erik came back to the house, stayed, and has now come up, all Charles can do is nod slowly as Erik smiles and sits down on the edge of his bed, “You must be terribly bored in here by yourself Charles. Won’t you let me take you outside? Hank has prepared a wonderful chair for you.”

Charles doesn’t know how to take it so just stares and Erik laughs at him because it is so very unlike Charles to be speechless, “I’m afraid I don’t want to go outside Erik.”

“Why?” Erik asks, shifting slightly on the bed and tilting his head to look at Charles more closely, taking in the dark circles under his eyes and his scruffy appearance.

Charles doesn’t know how to answer because no one put it that way before. They just assumed things and he would have to shoo them from his room and wallow in his self pity about how hard it was to roll over onto his side these days.

“Are you so afraid of things Charles? Things are different yes, your life will have to alter slightly but that doesn’t stop you opening this school of yours. It doesn’t change your gift,” Erik states, glancing out the window before taking a deep breath, “And it certainly doesn’t change how I feel about you.”

Charles sighs, closes his eyes and pinches the bridge of his nose with his fingers, before he looks at Erik again, “Why are you here Erik? Don’t you have a war to prepare for?”

Erik merely moves closer to him, shifting up the covers until he can lean over and press his lips carefully to the other mans before murmuring, “Some things are more important. Some things open your eyes. I don’t share your ideas Charles, you made that clear on the beach but please...please I....I’ve been doing some thinking. Raven too. The others. I...just allow us to stay for now, let me back _in_ Charles. Let me care for you. Let me help you set up this school. I can’t leave you now, not like this.”

“You want to start a war Erik,” Charles says, pushing Erik carefully away from him but not hard enough to force him off the bed, “How can I let that attitude around children?”

“I never said I wanted to start a war. I said a war was _coming_. You saw what happened on that beach! We tried to stop a nuclear war and instead found we were the ones being fired at!”

“You tried to kill them!” Charles argues, pushing up off his headboard and falling apart slightly inside when he can’t get his legs to move and he’s tried so hard to stay still recently so that he didn’t have to confront it that it takes him aback.

“They fired first Charles! I was trying to survive! I was trying to protect us and then....” Erik pleads before falling silent, his eyes betraying him by glancing at the other man’s covered legs.

“Then this happened,” Charles states quietly and the anguish in Erik’s eyes, the sorrow, causes a lump to form in his throat because it all makes a little more sense now. Sebastian had got to Erik in that sub, but only for a matter of minutes. Maybe there was a way to pull Erik back from that idea, to work _with_ him, and maybe they could do that together.

“The school...I want it to be a place where people don’t have to hide. What if we started there?” It is a simple question that masks several complicated ones. Not having to hide is a shared value, a shared dream for many of them. They just don’t see it the same. It might not work; Erik might be too far gone. He might have got to Raven and it might be impossible to bring them back, not to mention the others he had converted to his cause.

“Why don’t we start with getting you out of this room Charles? We can go from there. I think Raven would like to see you, the others too. Perhaps we can work something out. I...I came so close to losing you Charles,” Erik whispers, “I...I’ve lost too much already. Sebastian was the reason I lost my mother. I couldn’t stand the thought of my own actions being why I lost you. I’ve done a lot of thinking and....let me take you outside, please?”

Charles bites his lower lip. It isn’t about going outside. It is about meeting halfway and going from there and seeing if they can work something out, _together_. “Kiss me first,” he demands, “Kiss me and I’ll know if you mean it.”

Erik smiles, his eyes lighting up, and Charles can’t help smiling in return as the other mans moves in and takes a hold of his chin before kissing him, gently at first, before he deeps it, tongue probing Charles’s mouth until they can’t breathe and he pulls away. His bright blue eyes are wide and open and Charles smiles.

“Perhaps you could bring me some clothes? I can’t be wandering around outside in my pyjamas. People will think I have lost my mind.”

Erik laughs and it gives Charles hope somehow, “Charles, they know that already.”


End file.
